Sunday, April 13, 2008
Thing 23: Final thoughts
It was so much fun exploring all of the techy things out there. I plan on sharing my knowledge with other co-workers and I really hope you find more things for us to play with soon (after a break). I particularly loved anything to do with media and pictures and seemed to catch on to those quickly. Adding other feeds sometimes seemed difficult so I mainly stuck with the iGoogle page. I hope to take some time to read other Blogs now. I may make more Blogs. In one word or sentence: 23 things on a stick improves your "2.0ability"! Hope to participate again soon. Idea: Make t-shirts on CafePress with the Nice Logo!
Thing 22: What did I Learn Today?
I added a few feeds to my Google Reader page, my Facebook page, and added the website for Explore, Discover, Play to my blog, suggested by "friend of Franklin". I hope to try more by taking a little time each week to play at learning. It's been great fun. Thanks for the opportunity!
Thing 21: Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks
I like the 23 things on a stick on Ning. That is an interesting social site that I will be sure to visit again. It seems to be more grown-up and focused than Facebook and not so cluttered. It was easier to add things and maneuver around for me. For Libraries this might be a good internal site but for external use, Facebook is still probably best since that's where the kids are. (High school & college) Again, there is so much out there to explore. As you can see I added my badge and my slideshow. Very easy and fun.
Thing 20: Libraries and Social Networking
At Macalester, we joined Facebook about a year ago. One librarian and I found time to become friends and then my family reached out to me and now I have 4 more friends among my nieces and nephew who have thousands of friends and photos. My sister-in-law has about as few friends as I do mostly the same family. I joined Library 2.0 Interest Group, Librarians and Facebook, and wrote on their wall. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=19402848&hiq=carol%2Cking This is my facebook page.
Thing 19: Explore Podcasts
Ok, this was OK, but I could not find any audio streams and make them work. I tried all kinds of "podcast" links and they all led me to videos, not a single one would produce audio sound only. I tried for about an hour and gave up, so I put a blogline feed of some favorite types of news, hobby, feeds in my blog instead. That's the best I could do. I already subscribe to Google Reader so I don't want to clutter my life too much here.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Thing 18: You Tube and other sites
Well, You Tube was much more fun. I'm familiar with it. My daughter makes some funny stuff with her friends and I love looking at funny babies. I did not realize how many library videos were out there. I really thought the Introduction to the Book was one of the most creative, hysterical things I've seen in a long time. Very original! No problems with the Blog site. I even put a couple on my Facebook page. Cool!
Thing 17: ELM Productivity Tools
Maybe it's late, maybe my brain's fried, I don't know, but I can't make any of the assignments work on this topic. RSS, Blog, Searches, logons,etc... nothing working right and here I thought I could ace this project. I'm ready to scream! So no positive blog here. I'm glazing over, but ELM is great! Good night!
Thing 16: Student 2.0 Tool
WELL, GOSH, DARN,I could have used this as thing #1 and I would have had a great tool to help me finish this in a much more timely manner instead of cramming it all into this last weekend!!!!!! I am trying to get one of the link boxes on to my blog and it just doesn't work. I can't seem to get the url linking to work either.
Thing 15: Online Gaming
I tried out both games. With the pirate puzzle I just was not very quick and could not proceed past the first level, so I dropped out and cancelled my pirate. In Second Life, I could sure get lost in that world which is why I will not sign up for it. I do not like games where you wander around talking and interacting with virtual people. Strange! I have seen good news clip stories about people with special needs who are able to have a renewed chance at life online and if that's fun for them, then great, but for most healthy people, I just don't get it. It's amazingly full of incredible gaming material though. Cool! It was interesting what the Virtual Library is doing with the game. Applying some knowledge to the world.
Thing 14: Library Thing
I really like this site and I think I will put my gazillion books on this site. I have sometimes bought a duplicate, because I don't know what I have. It's great to read the recommendations and suggestions right away. In libraries, especially public, it would be an easy way for people to get readers' advisory by themselves. Sometimes the question is a struggle for the librarian who hasn't actually had time to read (despite popular thought) due to work and home duties like everyone else.
Thing 13: Online Productivity Tools
At work, we use Google Apps for Ed. and I have an iGoogle page I have been working on. I plan to add many of these things soon. At home, I use Comcast and just use their webpage, but I think I may change using what I've been learning. Probably I will change to iGoogle, too, but all our home email is Comcast. Oh, well, changes are hard. The countdown clock gadget did not countdown for me so I found one just doing a search for countdown clocks. One of my favorite sites will be Zamzar that converts file types. I get many files from my sister/brother-in-law in Africa and they sometimes come in a file type I don't have and I need to change it in order to read it. I've never had Microsoft Word at home, either and for years, I've used OpenOffice.org. This is an excellent word document program that supports several file formats and it is free. Online calendars are so necessary at work and we use Google calendaring. I really need to find one for home and these suggestions should help me decide.
Thing 12: Do you Digg?
From the New York Times, I found a movie clip about a woman who lives with 11 parrots. I thought this was fascinating because I have loved birds and always wanted one. I once tried to own a cockatiel, but with full time work I could not give him enough attention and he was nervous and demanding. We gave him away. There is so much information, some intelligent, some frivolous, some correct, some incorrect, it's hard to know ourselves what is good and useable. How are our patrons supposed to know?
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Thing 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us
I set up an account in Del.icio.us and I don't really like it as much as my regular bookmarks. It's interesting to see what other sites link to yours, but it's just too cluttered and you have to browse through many pages instead of scrolling down a neat list. I'll try it out for awhile. Tagging can lead on to infinity it seems. it's great for people hungry for more information. Therefore, libraries should be using tagging in ways to reach their community with projects, online groups and brainstorming ideas.
Thing 10: Wikis
I left a wiki post on this site Wikimedia (sandbox)- Metapub - Would like to donate.I really like the Common Craft videos, original and easy to understand. I would never have thought of a wiki as a way to communicate with family or friends. My sister, brother and I are trying to sell my mother's house. We all live in different states or countries and her house is in another different state. This might be an interesting way to keep up with the realtor and improvements on the house. Wikis would be great for library communities too for dialog, book review clubs and other projects.
Thing 9: Online Collaboration Tools
I understand Google Docs because I have used it before and it makes a lot of sense. No saving, downloading, uploading, emailing back and forth. However, I could not understand or make anything work with the Google Docs Thomas Jefferson document. Maybe it doesn't work with IE? I thought everything did. I clicked everywhere and nothing happened. I just didnt have time to go to Zoho, too. I will try that later.
Thing 8:Share your Creations
This is something I've tried to do for so long. I had no idea you could find programs that would do it for you for free and have so many kinds of programs to choose from. I've bought programs that were harder to use than "Picture Trail". These sites could have many applications to library websites, for advertising programs, book lists, staff, etc. I am bookmarking the 50 Web 2.0 ways to tell a story. Incredible!
Thing 7: Web 2.0 Communication Tools
Our library has just switched to Google Apps for Education and in exploring it and organizing, there seems to be lots of connectivity with other Google products. We also use Google Chat on campus and had been using it in the library for about a year before the switch. The availability of IM works well with Reference and ILL. Problems can be addressed easily and quickly. Personally, I use IM to chat with my sister who lives in East Africa. It's free and easy and instantaneous. We cover a lot of current topics in our lives, every day if we want. I recently attended a Minitex webinar on WorldCat Local since our library is moving to the ILS this summer. All in all, these tools have made it easier for librarians and patrons to make great strides in communication, with each other, and between colleagues.
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